Outbound Assist
The outbound assist is an important and often overlooked indicator that helps measure the extent to which your outbound campaigns impact inbound. This number is the percentage of the leads that came via inbound channels but had been initially generated by outbound efforts.
How Outbound Assist Works
When one firm actively engages with another, it isn’t always the perfect timing. So, the sales process stops at the very beginning, i.e., lead generation. However, when the time is right and the company is finally looking for solutions and vendors, the decision-makers often pick the company that actively engaged with them in the past.
Example:
Lora, CTO at a medium-size business, receives a letter and talks over the phone with Jim, an SDR at TGR. Jim offers her a solution for her company that will enable them to speed up some crucial processes. Lora likes it a lot but the company is currently in turmoil. Uncertain about the future, she doesn’t risk making a purchase.
In 6 months, the business is finally back to normal. Lora recalls the conversation with Jim, finds his company website and sets up an appointment. Although she actively engages with the brand via inbound channels, in reality, it’s the outbound activity that actually influenced her decision.
How Outbound Assist Impacts The Decision-makers:
Awareness about the company
It can be a vague recollection when your company name just weighs on your buyer’s mind but they can’t remember where they heard of you. It can be a strong mental picture of your brand as the provider of the best solution. Or it can be anything in-between. The result is what’s really important.
Awareness about the solution
One of the best opportunities that outbound can give you is outreach at the pre-awareness stage of the buying journey. Your potential customers don’t know what they need yet. They might be unaware of their issues or improvement possibilities.
And here you are with your solution to a problem they hadn't been quite aware of yet. The buyers aren’t ready to make a purchase but they already begin thinking about it. Eventually, they’ll come back to you provided you generated value for them.
How To Track And Calculate Outbound Assist
Modern CRMs like HubSpot provide an easy way to track your outbound assist. Simply look at the history of engagement with each incoming lead. Another way is to compare the lists of inbound and outbound leads.
You can calculate outbound assist at the beginning (leads) or middle (deals won) of your sales funnel.
Outbound Assist = outbound-assisted leads * 100 / total number of inbound leads
Outbound Assist = outbound-assisted deals * 100 / total number of inbound deals
You can also measure outbound-assisted leads vs. the total number of leads you get and deals that you close. To calculate its outbound impact on your company.
Outbound Assist = outbound-assisted leads * 100 / total number of deals
Read our article explaining the Outbound Assist phenomenon and how it impacts your inbound.